With future unclear, SS Keewatin shuttered for third consecutive tourism season

While other local tourist draws are looking forward to a favourable season, at least one remains shuttered for the foreseeable future.

For the third consecutive summer, the SS Keewatin will not welcome visitors again this year.

Wayne Coombes, president of the Friends of Keewatin charitable group, said the ship’s owner Skyline Investments Inc. hasn’t discussed any plans with them to reopen the ship in time for the 2022 season. This follows a two-year hiatus as a result of COVID-19.

“This means Keewatin will be closed for a third season in a row,” said Coombes, whose volunteer organization restored and has operated the Edwardian-era vessel as an historical attraction in Port McNicoll since 2012.

Skyline Investments CEO Blake Lyon told MidlandToday that “at this point the Keewatin will remain closed until we determine the best and most appropriate place going forward, whether that be Port McNicoll or elsewhere.”

The elsewhere in question could be a Kingston marine museum.

Lyon has said in the recent past that the Titanic-era vessel will be "gifted” to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes.

“We are working with certain agencies of the Government of Canada to determine this,” Lyon said, referring to the ship’s future home. “We will advise further once this is established.”

Coombes said "disappointed" doesn’t come anywhere close to describing how members of the volunteer group feel.

“For me ‘betrayed’ is more accurate,” Coombes said. “Skyline returned Keewatin to Port McNicoll promising to donate her to the community.

“Based on that promise, volunteers contributed an estimated 100,000 hours to restore her and operate her to pay for that restoration,” said Coombes, who acknowledged Skyline management has changed since those initial plans and now “intends to gift her to a different recipient.”

Coombes said he has noticed the ship’s deterioration, including the top deck at the bow, which was being repaired when Skyline barred the Friends' group from boarding the ship 18 months ago.

“After struggling to self-fund and execute repairs over seven long years to bring her to near fully restored condition, having to stand outside  and watch her deteriorate is hard to take," he said.

Built in Scotland, the vessel was launched on July 6, 1907, five years before the Titanic. It was retired in 1966 after spending almost 60 seasons transporting passengers.

Skyline has said that one issue regarding the Keewatin remaining in Port McNicoll involved the failure of the RJ and Diane Peterson Keewatin Foundation (aka the Friends’ group) to acquire the appropriate heritage designation from Canadian Heritage.

This failure, according to Lyon, led Skyline to seek alternative arrangements for the ship.

But Coombes said the assertion that it was the charity’s failure to secure Category B designation that led to this situation isn’t fair.

“The offer to donate Keewatin to the community wasn’t presented as conditional and the volunteer contribution couldn’t be,” he said. “Skyline created the charity, controlled its board through the 2018 season and controlled its management through the summer of 2020.”

Coombes said his group knows the Kingston museum has received the Category B designation for the Keewatin.

“Neither Canadian Heritage nor Skyline Investments have bothered to keep us informed," Coombes said. "Nobody is obliged to tell us anything, and they don't.

“We don't have any way of predicting the outcome, and that's why we struggle to survive... to be here should she stay.”